A collective cheer went up across the USA Sunday with the news that Saddam Hussein had been captured.
Not like the great leader (spell that dictator) of the past 35 years but like a rat, burrowed deep underground.
Although he wasn’t far physically from the opulent palaces he financed with money plundered from his own people, the underground holdup was a world away.
Holed up in a tiny burrow without servants or gold, he gave up without a fight, even though he had a side arm.
It was a fitting place to find someone like Hussein and as a good friend noted, “This was a case of money can’t buy everything..he was in a hole with $750,000 and it didn’t do him any good.”
Good point.
Photos of him show a disheveled old man, bearded with matted hair. Contrast that image with the well-groomed Hussein firing rifles in the air to lead his followers over the years.
To all of our service men and women who have contributed to this moment, we send our thanks and our prayers during this holiday season away from home. They need not have been present when Hussein was captured but their contribution was valuable just the same.
Now, the world watches to see how the United States will deal with such a heinous murderer.
Will we turn him over to a mob in Iraq, to those survivors who lost family members to Hussein’s cruelty?
They deserve justice, without question, but at what price?
It’s important that Hussein be tried in Iraq, the nation he pillaged for so long, but it’s also important that his trial be legitimate because the world is watching and waiting.
There is more than enough evidence to convict Hussein and his henchmen and to see that justice is carried out.
We thank President Bush who stayed the course despite intense political pressure for a quick fix.
The public needs to remember this as liberals line up to make their run for the White House. Howard Dean should be choking on his campaign trail speeches by now.
The job in Iraq is far from finished.
Nor have we forgotten Osama Bin Laden, who directed the attack on our homeland on 9-11-01.
It’s important that we keep focused on the fact that we were attacked, on our own soil, and that 3,000 Americans died at the hands of terrorists trained, financed and led by Bin Laden.
There are those whose memory of that day has dimmed. They don’t want to be reminded of it.
Ours hasn’t. We remember the children born without fathers because they were killed on that fateful day.
Fortunately, neither has the collective memory of our administration.
We hope Bin Laden is the next rat we find burrowed into a hole in the ground and like Hussein, we bring him to justice before a world wide audience and send a message that terrorism will not be tolerated at any price.